A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $5.6-million (U.S.), setting a new record for the artist and for a Latin American work of art at auction.

Roots, among Kahlo's few full-length self-portraits, was sold to an anonymous phone bidder at Sotheby's auction house Wednesday evening. The 1943 oil-on-metal shows the artist reclining in a bright orange dress with leafy roots growing out of her body into the ground -- a symbol of being nourished by the Earth. It had never before appeared on the public market, Sotheby's said.

The previous record for a Latin American work of art at auction also was for a Kahlo work,
Self-Portrait, executed in 1929. It sold for $5-million, Sotheby's said.
AP